CDC Confirms First Case of MERS Virus in the US

Posted by Jim Hoft on Friday, May 2, 2014, 3:34 PM

The CDC confirmed the first US case of an American infected with the MERS virus.
The man fell ill after arriving in the US from Saudi Aravbia.
Researchers are convinced camels are almost certainly the source of a deadly SARS-like condition that is spreading across the Middle East.

Health officials on Friday confirmed the first case of an American infected with a mysterious Middle East virus. The man fell ill after arriving in the U.S. about a week ago from Saudi Arabia where he is a health care worker.

The man is hospitalized in Indiana with Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is investigating the case along with Indiana health officials.

Saudi Arabia has been the center of an outbreak of MERS that began about two years ago. At least 400 people have had the respiratory illness, and more than 100 people have died. All had ties to the Middle East or to people who traveled there. Infections have been previously reported among health care workers.

MERS belongs to the coronavirus family that includes the common cold and SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, which caused some 800 deaths globally in 2003.